Industrial Waste: Saving the Worst for Last?

July 1990
Citation:
20
ELR 10283
Issue
7
Author
John C. Dernbach

Editors' Summary: RCRA reauthorization bills are currently moving through Congress. While RCRA Subtitle C provisions, addressing hazardous waste, continue to garner the lion's share of legislative attention, the author examines why Subtitle D provisions, dealing with solid waste; must be given greater attention and regulatory oversight. Specifically, the author focuses on industrial waste, which may represent as much as 94 percent of municipal, hazardous, and industrial wastes combined. The author explores the existing federal framework for industrial waste and looks at innovative state approaches. He analyzes current House and Senate RCRA reauthorization bills and how they could be written to best address four program goals: energy and materials conservation; environmental protection at waste management facilities; prompt and significant results; and genuine state and federal partnerships. The author concludes with suggestions for RCRA programs that could be used to implement these goals.

Mr. Dernbach is the Special Assistant to the Director, Bureau of Waste Management, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (DER). The views expressed in this Article are the author's and not necessarily those of DER. Many friends and colleagues contributed ideas to this Article. The author is especially grateful to Linda Greer, Ann Maest, Keith Welks, and Marcia Williams, who provided helpful comments. This Article is adapted from a paper given on March 8, 1990, to an Office of Technology Assessment workshop on nonhazardous industrial waste.

Article File